Wife of assault charge rap star in suicide attempt

THE wife of Eminem, one of America's top rap musicians, tried to kill herself at their home in Detroit after an especially turbulent week in an already troubled marriage, it was disclosed last night.

Eminem: tough upbringing

According to Eminem's record label, Interscope, Kim Mathers tried to commit suicide on Friday evening while her husband was performing at a concert. The police department said she was conscious when the emergency services found her and was kept in hospital only briefly for evaluation. No details were released about the incident.

The day before her attempted suicide, Mrs Mathers wrote a letter to her local newspaper defending herself against her husband's accusations that she was unfaithful. Eminem, whose real name is Marshall Mathers, is due in court today to face charges that he struck a man who kissed her in a bar.

An Interscope spokesman, Dennis Dennehy, said that the rapper was "obviously concerned about his wife's well-being", but that the couple would be dealing with the matter in private.

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Eminem, whose tough upbringing and unease with his success have made him a cult among disaffected teenagers, is a parents' nightmare for his use of profane and extremely violent lyrics. His career has soared in the past 18 months with the release first of The Slim Shady LP and now The Marshall Mathers LP. Earlier this year, he won two Grammy Awards for his work.

Despite having had the number one album in America for the past six weeks - with his second multi-platinum album - Eminem's success has been marred by a series of tangles with the police and the courts. Even his mother has sued him for alleging that she was a drug abuser.

In an interview with a Detroit newspaper last week, Eminem, 27, said of his fame: "I always wished for this, but it's almost turning into more of a nightmare than a dream." He also said that his already volatile marriage was dissolving under the pressure of his success.

His wife's letter to the Detroit Free Press was published on Friday morning. In it, she attacked her husband for his assault on a man in Detroit's Hot Rocks nightclub on June 4. Eminem struck John Guerra with an unloaded gun, but claims that he was provoked, a claim Mr Guerra's lawyer has denied.

In her letter, Mrs Mathers wrote: "My husband came up to Hot Rocks to check up on me. Why is still unknown to me because if I was to cheat on him it wouldn't be in a neighbourhood bar where he knows I am. Had he asked any questions before he flew off the handle, he would have realised that everyone with me were only friends. The fact that he just jumped to conclusions has gotten him and myself in trouble.

"I would also like to state, since my husband has had no problem trying to make me look like an unfaithful wife, that every time I find a picture of him with other women, or read in magazines that he's involved with 'groupies', I don't go and show up where he is making a huge scene and getting our faces put all over the TV and papers. I have always taken his word on things and stood by his side."

On his latest album, Eminem performs a song called Kim which describes a raging fight between him and his wife in front of their five-year-old daughter Hailey.

The rapper has admitted publicly that he and his wife have bitter fights, which have been exacerbated by his success. He said recently: "Me and the missus, we go at it. It's no secret that we've had our problems or that we're still having our problems." He added that buying a house in his home town had been a big mistake and that he was always besieged by fans.

Besides the assault and weapons charges from the incident involving his wife, Eminem is also facing trial for allegedly waving a gun at the friend of a rival rapper on the night before he struck Mr Guerra.